Surveying the damage from flooding in Dearborn in late June, Ford School MPP alums Bilal Baydoun (MPP '17) and Ali Abazeed (MPP '17) write for Bridge Michigan that they saw racial disparity in the effects of the calamity.
They write, "While Arab Americans have never been counted as a single racial group in the census, it’s estimated they comprise nearly half of the city population and live primarily in east side and Southend neighborhoods. The mass flooding event sent a seismic shock throughout the city. What has emerged is a story of how class, ethnicity and local politics have collided to produce stark differences in how residents experience emergencies like this one."